above Sun, the Gentle, wind · below Sun, the Gentle, wind
This sign shows how to get somewhere when pressure gets you nowhere. Gentleness works like the wind, quietly and without pause, and that is exactly why it gets in everywhere. Such effects are less striking than those won by taking people by surprise, but they last longer. You need a clear aim for this, because only an influence that keeps acting in the same direction achieves anything. Put your case calmly and more than once, perhaps in a group where you went unheard; that is how it succeeds, through what is small. Action without preparation ‘merely makes people shrink back and repels them’.
What is your clear aim, and how can you keep coming back to it, calmly and steadily?
Sun is one of the eight doubled signs. It is the eldest daughter; its image is the wind or wood, and its attribute is gentleness, which nevertheless penetrates like the wind, or like wood with its roots.
The dark, which in itself is rigid and immovable, is dissolved by the penetrating light principle, to which it submits in gentleness. In nature it is the wind that drives the massed clouds apart and brings a serene, clear sky. In human life it is the penetrating clarity of judgement that brings all dark ulterior motives to nothing. In the life of the community it is the powerful influence of a great personality who uncovers and scatters every intrigue that shuns the light.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
The Gentle. Success through what is small.It is favourable to have somewhere to go.It is favourable to see the great man.
Penetrating influence produces gradual and inconspicuous effects. One should work not by force but by uninterrupted influence. Such effects are less striking than those won by taking people by surprise, but they are more lasting and more complete. To be able to work in this way, one must have a clear aim; for something is achieved only when the penetrating influence keeps acting in the same direction.
The small can achieve something only when it subordinates itself to a man of consequence who has the ability to create order.
Winds that follow one another:the image of the gently penetrating.Thus the noble one spreads his commandsand carries out his affairs.
The penetrating power of the wind rests on its ceaselessness. That is what makes it so mighty. It uses time as its means of working. In the same way the ruler’s thought must penetrate the soul of the people. This too requires lasting influence through enlightenment and command. Only when the command has passed into the soul of the people is action in keeping with it possible. Action without preparation merely makes people shrink back and repels them.
Wilhelm placed the signs ○ and □ after certain lines (p. 334 f.). They mark the rulers of the hexagram. □ stands by the constituting ruler: the line that gives the hexagram its meaning, however high it stands and whatever its character. ○ stands by the governing ruler. It is always of good character and becomes ruler through the meaning of the time and its position, usually in the fifth place. Where a line is both, it carries ○.
In advancing and in retreatingthe perseverance of a warrior is favourable.
This line shows someone going back and forth, full of misgivings, who dares neither to step forward nor to retreat. Make up your mind, then do with discipline what the situation demands. Resolute discipline is far better than drifting irresolutely.
A gentle nature often goes as far as indecision. One does not feel the strength to advance resolutely. A thousand misgivings arise, yet one has no wish to withdraw either, and so one drifts irresolutely to and fro. In such a case military resolve is the right thing: one does firmly what order demands. Resolute discipline is far better than irresolute lack of discipline.
Penetrating under the bed.Priests and magicians are employed in great numbers.Good fortune! No blame.
This is about hidden influences that creep into dark corners and steer people from there without their noticing. Keep tracing them until you know what you are dealing with, then clear them away. It takes tireless effort, yet once dragged into the light such influences lose their power; this turns out well.
At times one has to deal with hidden enemies, intangible influences that creep into the darkest corners and from there work on people by suggestion. In such cases it is necessary to trace these things into their most secret corners, in order to establish what kind of influences are at work (this is the task of the priests), and to remove them (this is the task of the magicians). The very anonymity of such machinations calls for especially tireless energy, but the effort is rewarded. For once such uncontrollable influences have been dragged into the light and branded, they have lost their power over people.
Repeated penetration. Humiliation.
Here a matter is turned over so often that the thinking itself blocks the decision. Once you have weighed something thoroughly, make your choice and act. If you start brooding all over again, fresh doubts set in, and in the end you are left ashamed because nothing has happened.
Penetrating reflection must not be carried too far, or it hampers the capacity to decide. Once a matter has been thoroughly thought through, the task is to make up one’s mind and act. Thinking it over again and again only plunges one into fresh doubts, and so into humiliation, because one proves incapable of action.
Remorse disappears.In the hunt three kinds of game are taken.
Here modesty meets experience, responsibility and energetic effort. In this way a great deal succeeds at once, like a hunt that brings in game for three purposes: for the sacred, for guests and for everyday use. Bring your experience to bear with resolve and without arrogance; then great success is certain, and what you regret will pass.
If, by virtue of the responsible post one holds and the experience one has gathered, one combines innate modesty with energetic action, one is sure to achieve great success. The three kinds of game served as sacrifices to the gods, as fare for guests and for everyday use. When something was brought down for all three purposes, the hunt had been especially good.
Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears.Nothing that is not favourable.No beginning, but an end.Three days before the change, three days after the change. Good fortune!
The beginning was poor, yet what you regret will pass: a point has now been reached where the direction can change. Make firm, steady improvements, and think them through carefully before you change anything. Afterwards, keep checking for a while how the new arrangement holds up in practice; careful work of this kind turns out well.
Whereas in ‘Work on What Has Been Spoiled’ (No. 18) an entirely new starting point has to be created, here it is only a matter of reforms. The beginning was not good, but a point has been reached at which a new direction can be taken. One must change and improve. This must be done with constancy, that is, with a right and firm disposition; then it will succeed, and remorse disappears. Only it must be borne in mind that such improvements need careful consideration. Before the change is carried out, repeated reflection is necessary, and once the change has been made, one must still examine carefully for some time how the improvements turn out in practice. Careful work of this kind is attended by good fortune.
Penetrating under the bed.He loses his property and his axe.Perseverance brings misfortune.
You can trace the harmful influences into every last corner, yet you no longer have the strength to fight them effectively. In this situation, stop pressing further into the dark. If you persist regardless, it turns out badly; you lose your resources in the process.
Insight is penetrating enough. One follows the harmful influences into their most secret corners. But one no longer has the strength to fight them decisively. In this case every attempt to penetrate into the personal realms of darkness can only do harm.
Would you like to put your own question to the I Ching? Six throws of three coins, and the answer appears straight away.
Consult the I ChingTexts by Richard Wilhelm: I Ging. Das Buch der Wandlungen (first edition Jena 1924), translated into English by NUMEN COMPASS from the Diederichs edition, Munich 1996. Wilhelm’s German text is in the public domain. The section ‘What the hexagram says today’, the question for you and the short notes under the lines are our own reading. The I Ching is no substitute for medical, legal or psychological advice.